Modifying the rheological properties of polypropylene under elongational flow by adding polyethylene

Abstract

Adding polyethylene greatly affects the rheological response of isotactic polypropylene (PP) under uniaxial elongational flow. Though strain hardening in the transient elongational viscosity barely appeared in pure PP, we induced strain hardening by adding low-density polyethylene (LDPE) to PP, even though the blends showed a phase-separated structure. During elongational flow, LDPE droplets dispersed in the PP were deformed in the flow direction. Because LDPE shows marked strain hardening in the elongational viscosity, the deformed LDPE droplets behaved as rigid fibers as the strain increased. Consequently, the PP between the fibrous LDPE droplets experienced excess localized deformation, which increased the apparent elongational viscosity. Furthermore, adding the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) increased the drawdown force—defined as the force required for uniaxial stretching of a molten polymer in the nonisothermal condition. This behavior comes from the rapid crystallization of HDPE, which causes the deformed HDPE particles to act as rigid fibers in the molten PP and enhances the PP crystallization, which increases the elongational stress.